Memories

As I was flying to Indianapolis this morning, I was reminded of my first solo ministry trip here back in 2001. God is faithful and it’s cool to see how He links things together as I look back.

Quick Story:
I remember arriving here by taking the Greyhound from Rolla, MO.
At this time I was extremely green when it came to travel and logistics. I was just stoked to go places, skate and do ministry.
I arrived that afternoon and my fellow teammate drove over from the east coast to do the demo with me as well.
The deal was, he was supposed to drive me down to Columbus, GA that night so that we could join our team for the busy summer tour season. I honestly didn’t even know that I was supposed to get paid that day either 🙂
Well at the end of our demo and ministry time, my friend took the check and left me stranded there without communicating his plan, (this was before I had a cel phone too). While my friend peaced out and left, I was inside the venues green room meeting a new band called Pillar who I became fast friends with at the time because one of the members skated. When the host “promoter” whose ministry was then called Fire Proof found out what had happened, they felt bad for me and disappointed in my teammate for bailing out and leaving me stranded.
I remember that night, the ministry team took me out to an amazing dinner and then booked me a room in the presidential suite of their hotel. The next day they prayed for me and slipped me some extra cash and put me on a bus to Columbus, GA.
At the time I sincerely took this all in stride and kept a good undeserving grateful attitude. Sometimes I miss that attitude btw 🙂
That ministry that helped me and hosted this event would later become known as XXXChurch.
The founder Craig Gross and his staff will never know how much that impacted me as a young follower of Christ. That gesture encouraged me to know that I could step out in faith and the Lord will always provide a way. Even when others let you down weather it’s intentional or not, God wants our complete dependence upon Him. It’s experiences like these that shaped my faith and trust in the Lord.
I just thought I’d share a random travel story. My guys at Skatechurch hear so many of these war stories of mine, so I thought I’d post one 🙂

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Tim Byrne is an Urban Missionary/ Pastor and Itinerant Evangelist under the leadership of the original Skatechurch in Portland, OR. As a Pro Skateboarder since the early 2000's, Tim has used his skating to reach hundreds of thousands with the Gospel. "My mission is to simply share the good news of Jesus and disciple those that are often overlooked in our culture to repent of sin and to know God through His Holy Word."
Tim does this each week through his role at Skatechurch, and by partnering with numerous ministries all over the globe.